Associating an Image of a Receipt with a Record of Charge

ABSTRACT

Systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for expense management are disclosed. A user may submit receipts for one or more transactions into an expense management system. The expense management system may extract information from the receipts and match the extracted information to one or more of a plurality of Records of Charge (ROCs). The expense management system may match the extracted information to a ROC based on vendor name, location, time stamp, and the like. The expense management system may further assign a ROC to an expense category. The expense management system may assign a ROC to an expense category based on a standard industrial classification (SIC) code of a merchant, a category assigned to a different ROC, and a location associated with the ROC. An expense report for all submitted receipts may be generated.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The application is a continuation of, claims priority to and the benefitof, U.S. Ser. No. 14/929,050 filed Oct. 30, 2015 entitled “Systems andMethods for Expense Management”. The '050 application is a continuationof, claims priority to and the benefit of, U.S. Pat. No. 9,208,528issued Dec. 8, 2015 (aka U.S. Ser. No. 13/652,770 filed Oct. 16, 2012entitled “Systems and Methods for Expense Management”), all of which arehereby incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the field of finance management, andin particular, relates to expense management.

RELATED ART

In many transactions between a merchant and a customer, the merchantprovides the customer with a receipt having all details of thetransactions, such as the amount, date, identifier, etc., for thattransaction. These receipts are often required in an acceptablecondition for various personal and business reasons. Companies andbusiness professionals request receipts for the purpose ofreimbursements, record keeping, and the like. Further, any individualmay also want to keep receipts securely in order to have a proof ofpurchase so that any defective purchased item may be replaced at a laterstage.

Many times these receipts are torn, faded or lost, thus causing thecustomer inconvenience in the future. Further, if an individual wants tosubmit all his expense receipts at once, it is very difficult andcumbersome due to the large amount of receipts. Also, the individual mayneed to complete detailed expense reports for all expenses incurredduring a fixed period of time (e.g., a month), before submitting thereport to an accounting department. The submitting of receipts andcompleting of expense reports are often tedious and difficult.

In the case of reimbursements, a professional may securely keep hisreceipts, corresponding to expenses incurred while working for differentclients, and submit these receipts to accounting departments of thedifferent clients. However, due to multiple receipts corresponding tothe different clients, it may be possible that the professional submitsreceipts of expenses incurred for a client to the accounting departmentof another client. Such a mistake may result in chaos and difficultiesfor both the professional and the clients.

It would therefore be desirable to provide a method and system thatovercomes these and other problems associated with current techniquesfor expense management.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure includes a system, method, and article ofmanufacture for expense reporting. In various embodiments, the methodmay comprise receiving an image of a receipt, retrieving a record ofcharge (ROC) associated with a transaction account in response to thereceiving, and matching the image of the receipt to the ROC based uponinformation acquired from the image of the receipt. A receipt may beprocessed, and matching facilitated, by way of an optical characterrecognition process. The method may further include assigning the ROC toa category of expense, e.g., based upon at least one of: a standardindustrial classification (SIC) code of a merchant, a category assignedto a different ROC, and a location associated with the ROC. Further, invarious embodiments, the image of the receipt may be matched to the ROCbased upon at least one of: a merchant identifier acquired from theimage, a transaction identifier acquired from the image, a time stampacquired from the image, and a total amount of a transaction acquiredfrom the image. Similarly, in various embodiments, a plurality of imagesof a plurality of receipts may be matched to a plurality of ROCs.Matched ROCs may be submitted to an expense management system.

In various embodiments, the method may comprise receiving a record ofcharge (ROC), requesting an image of a receipt associated with the ROCin response to the receiving the ROC, and matching the image of thereceipt to the ROC in response to receiving the image of the receipt. Animage of a receipt may be matched to a ROC, in certain embodiments, inresponse to receiving the image of the receipt within a period of timeafter transmitting the alert. In various embodiments, the method mayfurther include receiving an image of encoded data printed on thereceipt separate from the image of the receipt. Further, a ROC may beassigned to a category of expense, e.g., based upon at least one of: astandard industrial classification (SIC) code of a merchant, a categoryassigned to a different ROC, and a location associated with the ROC. AROC may be further assigned to a client and/or a project, and an imageof a receipt, having been matched to ROC, submitted to an expensemanagement system.

In addition, in various embodiments, the method may comprise receiving arecord of charge (ROC) transmitting an alert requesting an image of areceipt associated with the ROC receiving an instruction to delaymatching the image of the receipt to the ROC, and matching the image ofthe receipt to the ROC in response to receiving the image of the receiptand based upon information acquired from the image of the receipt. Aninstruction to delay matching may comprise inaction by a customer inresponse to the alert, although it may also comprise an explicitinstruction to delay. In addition, an image of a receipt may be matchedto a ROC in response to receiving the image of the receipt after aperiod of time has elapsed and based upon information acquired from theimage of the receipt. Moreover, in various embodiments, an image of thereceipt may be matched to a ROC based upon at least one of: a merchantidentifier acquired from the image, a transaction identifier acquiredfrom the image, a time stamp acquired from the image, and a total amountof a transaction acquired from the image.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present disclosure will become moreapparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken inconjunction with the drawings. The left-most digit of a reference numberidentifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary expense management system in accordancewith various embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a process within theexpense management system in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a user delay processwithin the expense management system in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary method of processing a receipt inresponse to receiving an image of the receipt in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary method for processing a receipt inresponse to receiving a record of charge (ROC) in accordance withvarious embodiments;

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary method for delayed processing of areceipt in response to receiving a ROC in accordance with variousembodiments; and

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary expense management system implemented ona MICROSOFT SURFACE table in accordance with various embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description of various embodiments herein makes referenceto the accompanying drawings, which show the various embodiments by wayof illustration and their best mode. While these various embodiments aredescribed in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art topractice the disclosure, it should be understood that other embodimentsmay be realized and that logical and mechanical changes may be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Thus, thedetailed description herein is presented for purposes of illustrationonly and not of limitation. For example, the steps recited in any of themethod or process descriptions may be executed in any order and are notlimited to the order presented. Moreover, any of the functions or stepsmay be outsourced to or performed by one or more third parties.Furthermore, any reference to singular includes plural embodiments, andany reference to more than one component may include a singularembodiment.

The phrases consumer, customer, user, account holder, cardmember or thelike shall include any person, entity, business, governmentorganization, business, software, hardware, machine associated with atransaction account, buys merchant offerings offered by one or moremerchants using the account and/or who is legally designated forperforming transactions on the account, regardless of whether a physicalcard is associated with the account. For example, the cardmember mayinclude a transaction account owner, a transaction account user, anaccount affiliate, a child account user, a subsidiary account user, abeneficiary of an account, a custodian of an account, and/or any otherperson or entity affiliated or associated with a transaction account. Inaddition, as used herein, a user may comprise, in various embodiments,any person who interacts and/or interfaces with a computer system (e.g.,an organizational and/or an employer computer system).

Phrases and terms similar to “transaction account” may include anyaccount that may be used to facilitate a financial transaction.

Phrases and terms similar to “financial institution” or “transactionaccount issuer” may include any entity that offers transaction accountservices. Although often referred to as a “financial institution,” thefinancial institution may represent any type of bank, lender or othertype of account issuing institution, such as credit card companies, cardsponsoring companies, or third party issuers under contract withfinancial institutions. It is further noted that other participants maybe involved in some phases of the transaction, such as an intermediarysettlement institution.

Phrases and terms similar to “business” or “merchant” may be usedinterchangeably with each other and shall mean any person, entity,distributor system, software and/or hardware that is a provider, brokerand/or any other entity in the distribution chain of goods or services.For example, a merchant may be a grocery store, a retail store, a travelagency, a service provider, an on-line merchant or the like.

A system, method, and/or article of manufacture for expense managementis disclosed. In various embodiments, an expense management system mayreceive one or more receipts, corresponding to expenses incurred by auser, from one or more user devices. The receipts may be provided to theuser by multiple vendors or service providers. The receipts may bereceived by the expense management system in a digital copy format. Thedigital copy of the receipts may be obtained from a camera, or byscanning the receipts using a scanner. Further, the digital copy may beof any image format such as, JPEG, GIF, PNG, etc., or any documentformat such as, PDF, DOC, XPS, etc.

In response to the receiving of receipts, the expense management systemmay connect to a transaction server, in order to retrieve a plurality ofrecords of charge (ROCs) associated with the transactions for which thedigital copies of the receipts are submitted. The ROC, in an example,may be a unique identifier associated with a transaction performed bythe user by using a transaction card, such as, a gift card, a debitcard, a credit card, and the like, linked to a transaction account. TheROC may contain details such as location, vendor's name, total amount,and the like for the transaction. Based on the information identifiedfrom the digital copy of the receipt, the expense management system maymatch the digital copy of the receipt to one of the plurality of ROCsbased on a merchant identifier acquired from the digital copy, atransaction identifier acquired from the digital copy, a total amount ofa transaction acquired from the digital copy, and the like. Subsequentto matching of the digital copies of the receipts to one of theplurality of ROCs, the matched ROC may be assigned to an expensecategory, for example, based upon a standard industrial classification(SIC) code of a merchant, a category assigned to a different ROC, andthe like. The expense management system may also generate an expensereport for all submitted receipts.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary network environment 100, in which variousembodiments of the present invention may be deployed. As shown in theFIG. 1, the exemplary network environment 100 includes an expensemanagement system 102, one or more user devices 104-1 . . . 104-N,herein collectively referred as the user devices 104 and individuallyreferred as the user device 104. The network environment 100 may furtherinclude a transaction server 108. The expense management system 102, thetransaction server 108, and the user devices 104 may communicate over anetwork 106.

The expense management system 102 may be configured to receive digitalcopies of one or more receipts, corresponding to the expenses incurredby the user, via the user devices 104.

A user device 104 may be any device capable of transmitting data, suchas the digital copies of the receipts, to the expense management system102. Examples of the user devices 104 may include, without limitation,personal computers, cellular communication devices, Hand-Held displaydevices, smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablets,notebook computers, and the like. In various embodiments, a user device104 may comprise a tablet or table computing device, such as, forexample, a MICROSOFT SURFACE table. The user device 104 may also becapable of generating the digital copies of the receipts, for example,by photographing the receipts or scanning the receipts. The user devices104 may include suitable hardware and/or software for connecting to theexpense management system 102 through the network 106. An exemplaryexpense management system 102 is described in more detail in conjunctionwith FIG. 2 and FIG. 3.

With further regard to user devices 104, such devices may, in variousembodiments, include any device (e.g., personal computer, point of saleor POS device) which communicates via any network, for example such asthose discussed herein. Such browser applications comprise Internetbrowsing software installed within a computing unit or a system toconduct online transactions and/or communications. These computing unitsor systems may take the form of a computer or set of computers, althoughother types of computing units or systems may be used, includinglaptops, notebooks, tablets, hand held computers, mobile phones, smartphones, personal digital assistants, set-top boxes, workstations,computer-servers, main frame computers, mini-computers, PC servers,pervasive computers, network sets of computers, personal computers, suchas iPads, iMACs, and MacBooks, kiosks, terminals, point of sale (POS)devices and/or terminals, televisions, or any other device capable ofreceiving data over a network. A web-client 102 may run MicrosoftInternet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, or anyother of the myriad software packages available for browsing theinternet.

Practitioners will appreciate that a user device 104 may or may not bein direct contact with an application server. For example, a user device104 may access the services of an application server through anotherserver and/or hardware component, which may have a direct or indirectconnection to an Internet server. For example, a user device 104 maycommunicate with an application server via a load balancer. In anexemplary embodiment, access is through a network or the Internetthrough a commercially-available web-browser software package.

As those skilled in the art will appreciate, a user device 104 includesan operating system (e.g., Windows NT, 95/98/2000/CE/Mobile, OS2, UNIX,Linux, Solaris, MacOS, PalmOS, etc.) as well as various conventionalsupport software and drivers typically associated with computers. A userdevice 104 may include any suitable personal computer, network computer,workstation, personal digital assistant, cellular phone, smart phone,minicomputer, mainframe or the like. A user device 104 can be anywherethere is any type of wireless network connectivity (e.g., in a home orbusiness environment with access to a network). In an exemplaryembodiment, access is through a network or the Internet through acommercially available web-browser software package. A user device 104may implement security protocols such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) andTransport Layer Security (TLS). A user device 104 may implement severalapplication layer protocols including http, https, ftp, and sftp.

In various embodiments, components, modules, and/or engines of system100 may be implemented as micro-applications or micro-apps. Micro-appsare typically deployed in the context of a mobile operating system,including for example, a Palm mobile operating system, a Windows mobileoperating system, an Android Operating System, Apple iOS, a Blackberryoperating system and the like. The micro-app may be configured toleverage the resources of the larger operating system and associatedhardware via a set of predetermined rules which govern the operations ofvarious operating systems and hardware resources. For example, where amicro-app desires to communicate with a device or network other than themobile device or mobile operating system, the micro-app may leverage thecommunication protocol of the operating system and associated devicehardware under the predetermined rules of the mobile operating system.Moreover, where the micro-app desires an input from a user, themicro-app may be configured to request a response from the operatingsystem which monitors various hardware components and then communicatesa detected input from the hardware to the micro-app. In variousembodiments, a micro-app may be made available as a service.

In various embodiments, the expense management system 102 may beimplemented as middleware and may provide various functionalities as aservice to organizations, banks and/or individuals deploying the expensemanagement system 102. Thus, in various embodiments, the expensemanagement system 102 may run as a stand-alone application on the userdevice 104. Further, an organization or an individual may deploy theuser device 104 in order to use functionalities of the expensemanagement system 102.

As used herein, network 106 includes any cloud, cloud computing systemor electronic communications system or method which incorporateshardware and/or software components. Communication among the parties maybe accomplished through any suitable communication channels, such as,for example, a telephone network, an extranet, an intranet, Internet,point of interaction device (point of sale device, personal digitalassistant (e.g., IPHONE, PALMPILOT, BLACKBERRY), cellular phone, kiosk,etc.), online communications, satellite communications, off-linecommunications, wireless communications, transponder communications,local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), virtual privatenetwork (VPN), networked or linked devices, keyboard, mouse and/or anysuitable communication or data input modality. Moreover, although thesystem is frequently described herein as being implemented with TCP/IPcommunications protocols, the system may also be implemented using IPX,Appletalk, IP-6, NetBIOS, OSI, any tunneling protocol (e.g. IPsec, SSH),or any number of existing or future protocols. If the network is in thenature of a public network, such as the Internet, it may be advantageousto presume the network to be insecure and open to eavesdroppers.Specific information related to the protocols, standards, andapplication software utilized in connection with the Internet isgenerally known to those skilled in the art and, as such, need not bedetailed herein. See, for example, Dilip Naik, Internet Standards andProtocols (1998); Java 2 Complete, various authors, (Sybex 1999);Deborah Ray and Eric Ray, Mastering HTML 4.0 (1997); and Loshin, TCP/IPClearly Explained (1997) and David Gourley and Brian Tatty, HTTP, TheDefinitive Guide (2002), the contents of which are hereby incorporatedby reference.

The various system components may be independently, separately orcollectively suitably coupled to the network via data links whichincludes, for example, a connection to an Internet Service Provider(ISP) over the local loop as is typically used in connection withstandard modem communication, cable modem, Dish networks, ISDN, DigitalSubscriber Line (DSL), or various wireless communication methods, see,e.g., Gilbert Held, Understanding Data Communications (1996), which ishereby incorporated by reference. It is noted that the network may beimplemented as other types of networks, such as an interactivetelevision (ITV) network. Moreover, the system contemplates the use,sale or distribution of any goods, services or information over anynetwork having similar functionality described herein.

“Cloud” or “Cloud computing” includes a model for enabling convenient,on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computingresources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services)that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal managementeffort or service provider interaction. Cloud computing may includelocation-independent computing, whereby shared servers provideresources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand.For more information regarding cloud computing, see the NIST's (NationalInstitute of Standards and Technology) definition of cloud computing athttp://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145.pdf (lastvisited June 2012), which is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety.

The transaction server 108 may comprise a computer server havingtransaction records of users (e.g., associated with user devices 104)stored thereon. An organization, in an example, may be a bank or acredit card service provider, having transaction records of transactionsperformed by one or more users. An expense management system 102 maycommunicate with a transaction server 108 to access transaction recordsof users.

In various embodiments, as user, such as a business professional, who istravelling for business purposes may wish to keep a record of theexpenses incurred by him for all or part of a business trip forsubmitting the record of expenses in his company or an accountingdepartment of a client for whom the user has taken the business trip.Generally, the user may securely keep receipts, provided by vendorsand/or service providers, as the record of expense. These receipts maybe in a printed or hand-written form. Further, the user may need tosubmit a complete expense report to his company or the accountingdepartment of the client in order to claim reimbursements.

According to various embodiments, the user may send digital copies ofone or more receipts to the expense management system 102. The user maysend the digital copies of the receipts to the expense management system102 through the user device 104. Subsequent to the receiving of thedigital copies of the receipts by the expense management system 102, theexpense management system 102 may retrieve one or more of a plurality ofROCs from the transaction server 108. A ROC, as described elsewhereherein, may comprise a unique identifier generated when the userperforms a transaction using a transaction card, such as, but notlimited to, a credit card, a debit card, a gift card, a corporate travelcard, and the like.

The expense management system 102 may then utilize the plurality of ROCsand information identified from the digital copies of the receipts, inorder to process the receipts for expense management. The expensemanagement system 102 may match the digital copies of the receipts toone of the plurality of ROCs retrieved from the transaction server 108based on the information identified from the digital copies such as nameof vendor or merchant, time of transaction, location of transaction, andthe like. Based on this matching, the expense management system 102 mayfurther process the receipts, for example, to generate an expense reportfor the user.

In various embodiments, an expense management system 102 may performoperations as discussed with reference to FIG. 2. As described elsewhereherein, the user may be provided receipts by multiple vendors or serviceproviders for expenses incurred by the user. For purposes ofreimbursements, record keeping, and the like, the user may want tosecurely save these receipts and also prepare an expense report for afixed period of time.

As depicted in FIG. 2, to submit digital copies of the receipts, theuser may first login to the expense management system 102 (51). The usermay login into the expense management system 102 using a username and apassword. The user may also login to the expense management system 102,for example, by swiping a credit card, through which the user hasperformed transactions, in a card swipe machine (not shown), attached tothe user device 104. Further, one or more transaction cards, such as,credit cards, debit cards, ATM cards, gift cards etc. in the name of theuser may be registered with the expense management system 102. Based onan authentication of login details entered by the user, the user may beredirected to the expense management system 102 via the user device 104.

As depicted in the block diagram 200, the user may be prompted forsubmitting one or more receipts, corresponding to transactions performedby the user, to the expense management system 102 (S2). The expensemanagement system 102 may prompt the user, in an example, by sending analert to the user device 104. The alert may be in the form of an e-mail,a text message, an alarm and the like. In response to receiving theprompt from the expense management system 102, on the user device 104,the user may submit the digital copies of the receipts, to the expensemanagement system 102 (S3). Further, if the user wishes tosimultaneously submit more than one receipt in the expense managementsystem 102, the user may do so by generating a single digital copy ofall the receipts and directly submitting the single digital copy to theexpense management system 102. The expense management system 102 maythen automatically segregate or isolate (e.g., using a digital imagingalgorithm or system) the receipts from the digital copy.

The digital copies of the receipts may be received by an identificationunit 202 of the expense management system 102. In case of a singledigital copy containing multiple receipts, as described above, theidentification unit 202 may segregate or isolate individual receiptsfrom the digital copy. Further, the identification unit 202 may identifyinformation contained in the digital copies. The identification unit 202may identify the information contained in the digital copies of thereceipts, for example, by an Optical Character Recognition (OCR)process. In an example, the identification unit 202 may identifyinformation such as name of vendor, merchant number, time stamp, totalamount, and the like from the digital copies.

Further, in various embodiments, the identification unit 202 may connectto the transaction server 108. As described herein, the transactionserver 108 may be a back-end server with a bank or a credit card serviceprovider. The transaction server 108 may communicate with a transactiondatabase 110 to transmit and/or receive details related to thetransaction account (e.g., one or more of a plurality of ROCs). Atransaction server 108 may further communicate with an expensemanagement system to transmit and/or receive transaction details (e.g.,one or more of a plurality of ROCs) (S4 and S5).

The identification unit 202 may connect to the transaction server 108,in an example, for retrieving one or more of a plurality of ROCsassociated with one or more transactions performed by the user, from thetransaction database 110. For example, in various embodiments, inresponse to receiving a connection request from the identification unit202, the transaction server 108 may send a query to the transactiondatabase 110 to retrieve one or more of a plurality of ROCs from thetransaction database 110. The transaction server 108 may retrieve one ormore ROCs from the transaction database 110 and may then provide the ROCor ROCs to the expense management system 102. The one or more ROCsprovided by the transaction server 108 may be received by the matchingunit 204 of the expense management system 102.

The matching unit 204 may, in various embodiments, match a receipt(e.g., a digital copy of the receipt) to one of the plurality of ROCsbased on the information identified from the digital copy of thereceipt. In an example, the digital copy of the receipt may be matchedto one of the plurality of ROCs based upon identified information suchas merchant identifier, transaction identifier, time stamp, location oftransaction, and the like obtained from the digital copy of the receipt.The matching unit 204 may also tag relevant information, extracted oridentified from all the digital copies of the receipts, in order tomatch receipts of similar kinds.

In an example, a user may purchase, with a transaction account, an airticket worth $200.00 from an airlines service provider, the serviceprovider may provide him with a receipt for the transaction along withthe air ticket. The receipt may indicate the total amount, i.e. $200.00,the date of the transaction, the service provider's name, and the like.If the user wishes to claim the amount of the air ticket from hiscompany or organization, he may submit a digital copy of the receipt inthe expense management system 102. The user may first login in to theexpense management system 102, in an example, by using a username and apassword. The user may also login by swiping the credit card, from whichthe transaction was made, into the card swipe machine connected with theuser device 104. After receiving a successful login message from theexpense management system 102, the user may submit the digital copy ofthe $200.00 receipt to the expense management system 102. The expensemanagement system 102 may identify information such as merchant name,amount ($200.00), date of the transaction (e.g. 12^(th) July 2011),location of the transaction (e.g. Texas City), etc. from the digitalcopy of the receipt. The expense management system 102 may then retrievethe plurality of ROCs, associated with recent transactions performedusing the credit card, from the transaction server 108. The expensemanagement system 102 may then match the digital copy of the receipt toone of the plurality of ROCs retrieved from the transaction server 110based on information identified from the digital copy of the receipt.For example, the expense management system 102 may match the digitalcopy of the receipt to one of the ROCs based on any combination ofvendor names, locations of similar transactions, time of similartransactions, and the like. Thus, based on an OCR of the digital copy ofthe receipt and the matching performed by the expense management system102, a message may be displayed indicating that an airlines receipt foran amount $200.00 has been successfully submitted.

In case of cash and/or handwritten receipts, the identification unit 202may utilize an OCR process in order to identify information from thereceipt image or scanned copy. As no ROC is typically present for cashand handwritten receipts in the transaction database 114, the expensemanagement system 102 may provide the user with an interface for editingthe extracted information. For example, the user may enter the merchantname, client name for which the transaction was performed, and the likein the expense management system 102, through the user device 104.

With continued reference to FIG. 2, the expense management system 102may assign the ROC, matched to the digital copy of the receipt, to anexpense category. The ROC, to which the digital copy of the receipt ismatched, may be provided to the assigning unit 206 by the matching unit204. The assigning unit 206 may assign the ROC to one or more expensecategories based on a number of parameters. These parameters may includea Standard Industrial Code (SIC) of the merchant or vendor, informationrelated to previous matching activities for multiple ROCs, and the like.Further, as previously described, examples of the expense categories mayinclude, without limitation, Travel, Food, Personal, Lodging, and thelike. After assigning one or more of the ROCs to expense categories, theexpense management system 102 may allow the user to associate ROCs toone or more clients and/or business organizations from which the userwishes to claim expenses.

Referring to the above stated example, the matching unit 204 may matchthe digital copy of the receipt to one of the plurality of ROCs, basedon the information identified from the digital copy of the receipt. Theassigning unit 206 may assign the ROC, matched to the digital copy ofthe receipt, to an expense category. The assigning unit 204 may assignthe ROC to the expense category based, on for example, a SIC of theservice provider. That is, if the SIC, as depicted by the digital copyof the receipt, is, for example, 4512 (e.g., a SIC for AirTransportation, Scheduled), the assigning unit 204 may assign the ROC tothe expense category named “Travel”.

The expense categories may be automatically generated by the systemand/or may be user-defined. Thus, the user may assign all transactionsaccounted for travel to a single client or multiple clients.

Subsequent to assigning of the ROCs to the expense categories, thereporting unit 208 of the expense management system 102 may generate anexpense report for the user. The expense report may have differentsections indicating different parameters such as expense category, totalamount for each expense category, client to whom the expenses are to bebilled, and the like. The expense report may thus be used by the user inorder to manage expenses. The user may also send the expense report tohis business organization or to the accounting department of the clientin order to reimburse the expenses stated in the expense report.

In various embodiments, the reporting unit 208 may send the expensereport to the user device 104 (S6). The reporting unit 208 may also senda prompt on the user device 104 asking for an email ID of the user, sothat the expense report may be directly mailed to the user. Further, theuser may also enter an email ID of a Human Resource or Accountsdepartment of the user's organization, and/or an email ID of the clientaccounting department, so that the reporting unit 208 may mail theexpense report directly to the user's organization and/or to theaccounting department of the client for whom the expenses were incurredby the user. Furthermore, the reporting unit 208 may send the expensereport to an expense management tool. Examples of expense managementtools may include MOBILEXPENSE, EXPENSEANYWHERE, EXPENSEWIRE, and thelike.

In various embodiments, and with reference to FIG. 3, transactiondetails for a purchase may be provided from the vendor's or merchant'sdatabase to the transaction server 108. The transaction details may beprovided in real time to the transaction server 108 (e.g., as soon asthe transaction is completed by the user and/or shortly thereafter)(S1A).

The transaction server 108 may query the transaction database 110 forretrieving a ROC associated with the transaction details. Thetransaction server may receive the ROC from the transaction database110, and provide the ROC to the expense management system 102 (S2A). Thematching unit 204 may receive the ROC from the transaction server 108.

The expense management system 102, may, in response, send an alert tothe user requesting the user to submit the receipt associated with thetransaction (S3A). The alert may be sent by the expense managementsystem 102 to the user device 104. The alert may be in the form of analarm, a text message, an E-mail, a push message, and the like. A textbody of the alert may display time of the transaction, date of thetransaction, amount of the transaction etc. to the user.

In various embodiments, the user may login into the expense managementsystem 102 for submitting a digital copy of the receipt to the expensemanagement system for further processing (S4A). Once the expensemanagement system 102 authenticates the user, a successful login messagemay be sent to the user device 104.

The user, a user may submit the digital copy of the receipt to theexpense management system 102. The user may also submit digital copiesof receipts pertaining to transactions, other than the transaction forwhich the user has been sent the alert. For receipts pertaining to othertransactions, the matching unit 204 may obtain the plurality of ROCsfrom the transaction server 108, as described earlier. The digitalcopies of the receipts may be received by the identification unit 202 ofthe expense management system 102 (S5A). The expense management systemmay send a “successfully submitted” message to the user device 104, whenthe digital copies of the receipts are successfully received by theidentification unit 202.

In an alternate embodiment, the user may be provided an option of batchprocessing of the receipts, by the expense management system 102. Forexample, when the user logins into the expense management system 102,after receiving the alert, the expense management system 102 may allowthe user to delay a submission of the digital copies of the receipts.That is, the user may have the option of either submitting the digitalcopies of the receipts as soon as the user logs in to the expensemanagement system 102 or the user may opt to delay processing of thereceipts. In the scenario that the user may opt to delay processing ofthe receipts, the user may either enter a fixed time period to delay thesubmission and processing of the receipts, or the user may simply delayit indefinitely. The user may then manually trigger the submission andprocessing of the receipts, in case of the indefinite delay.

In various embodiments, the identification unit 104 may identifyinformation from the digital copies of the receipts. As describedearlier, the identification unit 104 may identify the information fromthe digital copies of the receipts by means of OCR. Examples of theidentified information may include name of vendor, merchant number, timestamp, total amount, and the like.

The identification unit 202 may then send the information identifiedfrom the digital copies of the receipts to the matching unit 204. Foreach receipt, the matching unit 204 may then match the digital copy ofthe receipt to one of the plurality of ROCs received from thetransaction server 108 based on the information identified from thedigital copy of the receipt. As described in the foregoing, the matchingunit 204 may match the digital copy of the receipt to the ROC based upona merchant identifier acquired from the digital copy, a transactionidentifier acquired from the digital copy, a time stamp acquired fromthe digital copy, a total amount of a transaction acquired from thedigital copy, and the like. If digital copy of each receipt successfullymatches to the corresponding ROC, the expense management system 102 maycontinue processing of the receipts. On the other hand, if matching isunsuccessful, an indication may be sent, by the expense managementsystem 102, to the user device 104.

Based on matching of the digital copy of the receipt to the ROC, theassigning unit 206 may assign the ROC to an expense category. Theassigning unit 206 may assign the ROC to the expense category based on,for example, the SIC of the vendor or the merchant as depicted on theimages or the scanned copies of the receipts. As described earlier, theexpense management system 102 may allow the user to associate the ROCsto clients and/or business organizations from which the user wishes toreimburse incurred expenses.

In various embodiments, the reporting unit 208 may generate an expensereport for all expenses, for which the digital copies of the receiptsare submitted by the user. As described in the foregoing, the expensereport may have different sections indicating different parameters suchas expense category, total amount for each expense category, and thelike. The reporting unit 208 may send the expense report to the userdevice 104 (S6A). In various embodiments, the expense management system102 may prompt the user to enter a particular email ID to which the userwishes to mail the expense report directly. The reporting unit 208 mayalso send the expense report to one or more expense management tools.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method 400 of processing of a receipt in responseto receiving an image of the receipt. In various embodiments, thedigital copy of the receipt to be processed is received (step 402). Asdescribed earlier, the digital copy of the receipt may be received bythe identification unit 202, of the expense management system 102, fromthe user device 104. The user may generate the digital copy of thereceipt by taking a photograph of the receipt and/or by scanning thereceipt.

In various embodiments, one or more of a plurality of ROCs associatedwith a transaction account may be retrieved (e.g., in response toreceiving the digital copy of the receipt) (step 404). The plurality ofROCs may be retrieved by the matching unit 204 from the transactionserver 108. The plurality of ROCs, in an example, may be uniqueidentifiers identifying information pertaining to a transaction historyof previous transactions against the transaction account of the user.

In various embodiments, the digital copy of the receipt may be matchedto one of the plurality of ROCs (step 406). The matching unit 204 maymatch the digital copy of the receipt to one of the plurality of ROCsbased on the information identified from the digital copy of thereceipt. The information may be identified from the digital copy of thereceipt by the identification unit 202 of the expense management system102. The identification unit 202 may identify the information from thedigital copy of the receipt, for example, by using OCR. The matchingunit 204 may match the information identified from the digital copy ofthe receipt based on, for example, a merchant identifier acquired fromthe digital copy, a transaction identifier acquired from the digitalcopy, and the like.

In various embodiments, the ROC may be assigned to an expense categoryby the assigning unit 206 and an expense report may be generated by thereporting unit 208. The expense report may then be provided to the user.

FIG. 5 illustrates a method 500 for processing of a receipt in responseto receiving a record of charge (ROC). In various embodiments, a ROC isreceived (step 502). The ROC may be received by the matching unit 204,of the expense management system 102, from the transaction server 108.The transaction server 108 may provide the ROC to the expense managementsystem 102 in response to receiving transaction details from thevendor's or merchant's database, for a transaction performed by theuser.

In various embodiments, the expense management system 102 may requestthat the user submit the digital copy of the receipt associated with theROC (step 504). The expense management 102 may send the request to theuser device 104 in response to receiving the ROC from the transactionserver 108. The request may be sent to the user device 104 in the formof an E-mail, a text message, a push notification, etc.

In various embodiments, the user may login into the expense managementsystem 102 by any one of the techniques for logging in as described inthe foregoing. The user may then submit the digital copy of the receiptto the expense management system 102. The user may submit the digitalcopy of the receipt using the user device 104.

In various embodiments, the matching unit 204 of the expense managementsystem 102 may match the digital copy of the receipt to the ROC based onthe information identified from the digital copy of the receipt (step506). The information may be identified by the identification unit 202of the expense management system 102. As described earlier, theinformation may be identified by the identification unit 202, forexample, by OCR. In various embodiments, the assigning unit 206 mayassign the ROC to an expense category and the reporting unit 208 maygenerate the expense report for sending to the user.

FIG. 6 illustrates a method 600 for delayed processing of a receipt inresponse to receiving a ROC. In various embodiments, a ROC is received(step 602). As described earlier, the ROC may be received by thematching unit 204 of the expense management system 102. The ROC may bereceived by the matching unit 204 from the transaction server 108.

In various embodiments, a request for submitting a digital copy of thereceipt associated with the ROC may be sent by the expense managementsystem 102 to the user (e.g., via the user device 104) (step 604). Therequest may be sent on the user device in the form of an alarm, anE-mail, and the like. In various embodiments, the user may login intothe expense management system 102.

In various embodiments, the expense management system 102 may receive aninstruction to delay the matching of the digital copy of the receipt tothe ROC (step 606). The user may send the instruction for delaying thematching, e.g., using or by way of the user device 104. The user mayalso enter a pre-defined time period, such that after the pre-definedtime period is elapsed, the expense management system 102 may re-sendthe request, for submitting the digital copy of the receipt to the userdevice 104. In various embodiments, the user may delay the matchingindefinitely. In such a scenario, the user may manually trigger thematching at his convenience, using a manual trigger instruction.

At block 608, the matching unit 204 may match the digital copy of thereceipt to the ROC. The matching unit 204 may match the digital copy ofthe receipt to the ROC in response to receiving the digital copy of thereceipt, and, e.g., after the pre-defined time period as set by the useris elapsed. In various embodiments, the assigning unit 206 may assignthe ROC to an expense category and the reporting unit 208 may generatethe expense report and may send the expense report to the user.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the expense managementsystem 102 as implemented on a tablet or table 700, such as a MICROSOFTSURFACE table. The expense management system 102 may have a plurality ofsurface divisions for performing different functionalities of theexpense management system 102. The plurality of surface divisions mayinclude a user device surface 702, a receipt surface 704, an expensereport surface 706, and other records surface 708. The table 700 may beany a device that would preferably be web enabled (mobile, Wi-Fi orcats), have touch capabilities (e.g. a touch capacitor) and/or becapable of capturing objects digitally (e.g. an Object CharacterRecognition device or a digital camera).

As illustrated in FIG. 7, the user device surface 702 may be illuminatedby a display message saying, for example, “User Expense Manager”. Theuser device surface 702 may be that surface division of the table 700,where the user may keep his user device 104. The user may place the userdevice 104 to login into the expense management system 102. The user mayalso place the user device 104 on the user device surface 702 in orderthat the receipts stored within the user device 104 may be submitted tothe expense management system 102. Once the user is successfully loggedin the expense management system 102, a “successful login” message maybe displayed on the user device surface 702.

In various embodiments, a plurality of indicators on the receiptssurface 704 may be illuminated and a display message reading, forexample, “Import Receipts” may be displayed to the user. The user mayplace one or more receipts, which are to be submitted to the expensemanagement system 102, on the receipt surface 704. Digital copies of thereceipts may then be acquired and/or prepared by the table 700. Thedigital copies of the receipts may be acquired by the table 700 usingone or more cameras or scanning devices embedded within the table 700.The receipt surface 704 may also indicate the number of receipts thatare kept on the receipt surface 704, by means of Light Emitting Diodes(LEDs) present on the receipt surface 704. As illustrated in FIG. 7, theuser has placed three receipts on the receipt surface 704, and thus theLEDs display a number 3 on the receipt surface 704. Further, the receiptsurface 704 may also display a progress of the imaging of the one ormore receipts, so that the user may be able to know the overall progressof the receipt imaging.

Further, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the receipt surface 702 may alsodisplay a mobile phone icon. The mobile phone icon may be displayed tothe user in order that the user may submit receipts stored within theuser device 104 directly to the expense management system 102. Thereceipts may be stored within a pre-defined location in an internalmemory of the user device 104. The pre-defined location may beuser-defined or may be a dedicated location for storing data, such asreceipts, expense reports, etc. related to the expense management system102.

In various embodiments, the expense management system 102 may retrieveone or more of a plurality ROCs related to the receipts from thetransaction server 108. Moreover, for each receipt, a digital copy ofthe receipt may be matched to one of the plurality of ROCs based on theinformation identified from the digital copy. Each of the plurality ofROCs may be further assigned to different expense categories asdescribed earlier, and the expense report may be generated by theexpense management system 102.

Referring back to FIG. 7, the expense report surface 706 may, in variousembodiments, display the expense report generated by the expensemanagement system 102. The expense report surface may provide the useran option to edit the expense report generated by the expense managementsystem. In an example described in FIG. 7, the user's expense reportshows details for five different transactions performed by the user. Astart date of Jul. 12, 2011 and an end date of Jul. 13, 2011 may, forexample, be displayed on top of the user's expense report. The startdate and the end date may be indicative of a time span in which multipletransactions are performed by the user for which the user submits one ormore receipts.

As depicted, and for purposes of illustration, the user has submittedreceipts for five different transactions for which the expensemanagement system 102 has generated the expense report. The firstreceipt is for an amount of $365.54 and the name of the vendor isAmerican Airlines. As shown, the user's expense report may show a blockdepicting T/Microsoft against the first transaction detail. The firstletter in the depiction may indicate the expense category to which thetransaction has been assigned. In the above example, “T” may stand foran expense category named “Travel”. Further, the block may also depict“Microsoft” against the expense category. In an example “Microsoft” maybe the client for which the expense was made. Thus, T/Microsoft mayindicate that a transaction for an amount of $365.54 has been performedwith American Airlines, and this transaction falls under the expensecategory Travel for the client named “Microsoft”. Similarly for atransaction of $200.00 with Wal-Mart may have an expense category as“Personal” and as the transaction is a personal expense, no client nameis indicated against the transaction.

Further, for unassigned transactions, such as $100.77 with IT TaxiServices, the user may be given an option to assign a client to thetransactions. As depicted, a tab showing “unassigned” may be displayedin association with such transactions. The user may be provided with atab showing “Assign clients” and by simply clicking on the tab, theexpense management system 102 may provide the user with an interface forentering the client's name. Furthermore, another tab showing “Drop Cashand Hand written Receipts here” may be shown to the user within theexpense report. The user may click on the tab and submit cash or handwritten receipts into the expense management system 102. As, in thisexample, no ROCs are present for hand written or cash receipts, thetable 700 may provide the user with an option to manually enter and savethe client's name and expense category. Once all corrections and editingis done, the user may click on the “send” tab so that the expensemanagement system 102 may send the expense report to a user-definedE-mail ID or expense management tool.

The table 700 may also display to the user the other records surface708. The other records surface 708 may be used by the user in order tosubmit miscellaneous documents such as frequent client lists, frequentvendors or merchants' lists, expense categories for which maximumtransactions are likely to be made, and the like. The expense managementsystem 102 may use these miscellaneous documents in order to create theexpense report.

Systems, methods and computer program products are provided. In thedetailed description herein, references to “various embodiments”, “oneembodiment”, “an embodiment”, “an example embodiment”, etc., indicatethat the embodiment described may include a particular feature,structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarilyinclude the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover,such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment.Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic isdescribed in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it iswithin the knowledge of one skilled in the art to effect such feature,structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodimentswhether or not explicitly described. After reading the description, itwill be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implementthe disclosure in alternative embodiments.

Any communication, transmission and/or channel discussed herein mayinclude any system or method for delivering content (e.g. data,information, metadata, etc.), and/or the content itself. The content maybe presented in any form or medium, and in various embodiments, thecontent may be delivered electronically and/or capable of beingpresented electronically. For example, a channel may comprise a website,a uniform resource locator (“URL”), a document (e.g., a Microsoft Worddocument, a Microsoft Excel document, an Adobe .pdf document, etc.), an“ebook,” an “emagazine,” an application or microapplication (asdescribed below), an SMS or other type of text message, an email,facebook, twitter, MMS, data communication over a financial acquirernetwork, and/or other type of communication technology. In variousembodiments, a channel may be hosted or provided by a data partner.

In various embodiments, the methods described herein are implementedusing the various particular machines described herein. The methodsdescribed herein may be implemented using the below particular machines,and those hereinafter developed, in any suitable combination, as wouldbe appreciated immediately by one skilled in the art. Further, as isunambiguous from this disclosure, the methods described herein mayresult in various transformations of certain articles.

For the sake of brevity, conventional data networking, applicationdevelopment and other functional aspects of the systems (and componentsof the individual operating components of the systems) may not bedescribed in detail herein. Furthermore, the connecting lines shown inthe various figures contained herein are intended to represent exemplaryfunctional relationships and/or physical couplings between the variouselements. It should be noted that many alternative or additionalfunctional relationships or physical connections may be present in apractical system.

The various system components discussed herein may include one or moreof the following: a host server or other computing systems including aprocessor for processing digital data; a memory coupled to the processorfor storing digital data; an input digitizer coupled to the processorfor inputting digital data; an application program stored in the memoryand accessible by the processor for directing processing of digital databy the processor; a display device coupled to the processor and memoryfor displaying information derived from digital data processed by theprocessor; and a plurality of databases. Various databases used hereinmay include: user data, file system data, client data; merchant data;financial institution data; and/or like data useful in the operation ofthe system. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, user computermay include an operating system (e.g., Windows NT, Windows 95/98/2000,Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, OS2, UNIX, Linux, Solaris, MacOS,etc.) as well as various conventional support software and driverstypically associated with computers.

In various embodiments, the server may include application servers (e.g.WEB SPHERE, WEB LOGIC, JBOSS). In various embodiments, the server mayinclude web servers (e.g. APACHE, IIS, GWS, SUN JAVA SYSTEM WEB SERVER).

As used herein, “transmit” may include sending electronic data from onesystem component to another over a network connection. Additionally, asused herein, “data” may include encompassing information such ascommands, queries, files, data for storage, and the like in digital orany other form.

Phrases and terms similar to an “item” may include any good, service,information, experience, data, content, access, rental, lease,contribution, account, credit, debit, benefit, right, reward, points,coupons, credits, monetary equivalent, anything of value, something ofminimal or no value, monetary value, non-monetary value and/or the like.

The system contemplates uses in association with web services, utilitycomputing, pervasive and individualized computing, security and identitysolutions, autonomic computing, cloud computing, commodity computing,mobility and wireless solutions, open source, biometrics, grid computingand/or mesh computing.

Any databases discussed herein may include relational, hierarchical,graphical, or object-oriented structure and/or any other databaseconfigurations. Common database products that may be used to implementthe databases include DB2 by IBM (Armonk, N.Y.), various databaseproducts available from Oracle Corporation (e.g., MySQL) (RedwoodShores, Calif.), Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server by MicrosoftCorporation (Redmond, Wash.), or any other suitable database product.Moreover, the databases may be organized in any suitable manner, forexample, as data tables or lookup tables. Each record may be a singlefile, a series of files, a linked series of data fields or any otherdata structure. Association of certain data may be accomplished throughany desired data association technique such as those known or practicedin the art. For example, the association may be accomplished eithermanually or automatically. Automatic association techniques may include,for example, a database search, a database merge, GREP, AGREP, SQL,using a key field in the tables to speed searches, sequential searchesthrough all the tables and files, sorting records in the file accordingto a known order to simplify lookup, and/or the like. The associationstep may be accomplished by a database merge function, for example,using a “key field” in pre-selected databases or data sectors. Variousdatabase tuning steps are contemplated to optimize database performance.For example, frequently used files such as indexes may be placed onseparate file systems to reduce In/Out (“I/O”) bottlenecks.

More particularly, a “key field” partitions the database according tothe high-level class of objects defined by the key field. For example,certain types of data may be designated as a key field in a plurality ofrelated data tables and the data tables may then be linked on the basisof the type of data in the key field. The data corresponding to the keyfield in each of the linked data tables is preferably the same or of thesame type. However, data tables having similar, though not identical,data in the key fields may also be linked by using AGREP, for example.In accordance with one embodiment, any suitable data storage techniquemay be utilized to store data without a standard format. Data sets maybe stored using any suitable technique, including, for example, storingindividual files using an ISO/IEC 7816-4 file structure; implementing adomain whereby a dedicated file is selected that exposes one or moreelementary files containing one or more data sets; using data setsstored in individual files using a hierarchical filing system; data setsstored as records in a single file (including compression, SQLaccessible, hashed via one or more keys, numeric, alphabetical by firsttuple, etc.); Binary Large Object (BLOB); stored as ungrouped dataelements encoded using ISO/IEC 7816-6 data elements; stored as ungroupeddata elements encoded using ISO/IEC Abstract Syntax Notation (ASN.1) asin ISO/IEC 8824 and 8825; and/or other proprietary techniques that mayinclude fractal compression methods, image compression methods, etc.

In one exemplary embodiment, the ability to store a wide variety ofinformation in different formats is facilitated by storing theinformation as a BLOB. Thus, any binary information can be stored in astorage space associated with a data set. As discussed above, the binaryinformation may be stored on the financial transaction instrument orexternal to but affiliated with the financial transaction instrument.The BLOB method may store data sets as ungrouped data elements formattedas a block of binary via a fixed memory offset using either fixedstorage allocation, circular queue techniques, or best practices withrespect to memory management (e.g., paged memory, least recently used,etc.). By using BLOB methods, the ability to store various data setsthat have different formats facilitates the storage of data associatedwith the financial transaction instrument by multiple and unrelatedowners of the data sets. For example, a first data set which may bestored may be provided by a first party, a second data set which may bestored may be provided by an unrelated second party, and yet a thirddata set which may be stored, may be provided by an third partyunrelated to the first and second party. Each of these three exemplarydata sets may contain different information that is stored usingdifferent data storage formats and/or techniques. Further, each data setmay contain subsets of data that also may be distinct from othersubsets.

As stated above, in various embodiments, the data can be stored withoutregard to a common format. However, in one exemplary embodiment, thedata set (e.g., BLOB) may be annotated in a standard manner whenprovided for manipulating the data onto the financial transactioninstrument. The annotation may comprise a short header, trailer, orother appropriate indicator related to each data set that is configuredto convey information useful in managing the various data sets. Forexample, the annotation may be called a “condition header”, “header”,“trailer”, or “status”, herein, and may comprise an indication of thestatus of the data set or may include an identifier correlated to aspecific issuer or owner of the data. In one example, the first threebytes of each data set BLOB may be configured or configurable toindicate the status of that particular data set; e.g., LOADED,INITIALIZED, READY, BLOCKED, REMOVABLE, or DELETED. Subsequent bytes ofdata may be used to indicate for example, the identity of the issuer,user, transaction/membership account identifier or the like. Each ofthese condition annotations are further discussed herein.

The data set annotation may also be used for other types of statusinformation as well as various other purposes. For example, the data setannotation may include security information establishing access levels.The access levels may, for example, be configured to permit or monitoronly certain individuals, levels of employees, companies, or otherentities accessing data sets, or to permit or monitor access to specificdata sets based on the transaction, merchant, issuer, user or the like.Furthermore, the security information may restrict, permit, and/ormonitor only certain actions such as accessing, modifying, and/ordeleting data sets. In one example, the data set annotation may indicateor track that only the data set owner or the user are permitted todelete a data set, various identified users may be permitted to accessthe data set for reading, and others are altogether excluded fromaccessing the data set. However, other access restriction or monitoringmay also be used which may allow various entities to access a data setwith various permission levels as appropriate, and/or which monitoringmay also be used to track various entities (e.g., users or systems)accessing a data set with various permission levels. Thus, in variousembodiments, tracking information may enable a system administrator toinquire into one or more user activities, which inquiry may permit thesystem administrator to adjust one or more access controls, modify oneor more user groups or transaction clusters, and the like.

The data, including the header or trailer may be received by a standalone interaction device configured to add, delete, modify, or augmentthe data in accordance with the header or trailer. As such, in oneembodiment, the header or trailer is not stored on the transactiondevice along with the associated issuer-owned data but instead theappropriate action may be taken by providing to the transactioninstrument user at the stand alone device, the appropriate option forthe action to be taken. The system may contemplate a data storagearrangement wherein the header or trailer, or header or trailer history,of the data is stored on the transaction instrument in relation to theappropriate data.

One skilled in the art will also appreciate that, for security reasons,any databases, systems, devices, servers or other components of thesystem may consist of any combination thereof at a single location or atmultiple locations, wherein each database or system includes any ofvarious suitable security features, such as firewalls, access codes,encryption, decryption, compression, decompression, and/or the like.

Encryption may be performed by way of any of the techniques nowavailable in the art or which may become available—e.g., AES, Twofish,RSA, El Gamal, Schorr signature, DSA, PGP, PKI, GPG (GnuPG) ECC, andsymmetric and asymmetric cryptosystems.

The computing unit of the web client may be further equipped with anInternet browser connected to the Internet or an intranet using standarddial-up, cable, DSL or any other Internet protocol known in the art.Transactions originating at a web client may pass through a firewall inorder to prevent unauthorized access from users of other networks.Further, additional firewalls may be deployed between the varyingcomponents of CMS to further enhance security.

A firewall may include any hardware and/or software suitably configuredto protect CMS components and/or enterprise computing resources fromusers of other networks. Further, a firewall may be configured to limitor restrict access to various systems and components behind the firewallfor web clients connecting through a web server. A firewall may residein varying configurations including Stateful Inspection, Proxy based,access control lists, and Packet Filtering among others. A firewall maybe integrated within a web server or any other CMS components or mayfurther reside as a separate entity. A firewall may implement networkaddress translation (“NAT”) and/or network address port translation(“NAPT”). A firewall may accommodate various tunneling protocols tofacilitate secure communications, such as those used in virtual privatenetworking. A firewall may implement a demilitarized zone (“DMZ”) tofacilitate communications with a public network such as the Internet. Afirewall may be integrated as software within an Internet server, anyother application server components or may reside within anothercomputing device or may take the form of a standalone hardwarecomponent.

The computers discussed herein may provide a suitable website or otherInternet-based graphical user interface which is accessible by users. Inone embodiment, the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS),Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), and Microsoft SQL Server, are usedin conjunction with the Microsoft operating system, Microsoft NT webserver software, a Microsoft SQL Server database system, and a MicrosoftCommerce Server. Additionally, components such as Access or MicrosoftSQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, Informix MySQL, Interbase, etc., may be usedto provide an Active Data Object (ADO) compliant database managementsystem. In one embodiment, the Apache web server is used in conjunctionwith a Linux operating system, a MySQL database, and the Perl, PHP,and/or Python programming languages.

Any of the communications, inputs, storage, databases or displaysdiscussed herein may be facilitated through a website having web pages.The term “web page” as it is used herein is not meant to limit the typeof documents and applications that might be used to interact with theuser. For example, a typical website might include, in addition tostandard HTML documents, various forms, Java applets, JavaScript, activeserver pages (ASP), common gateway interface scripts (CGI), extensiblemarkup language (XML), dynamic HTML, cascading style sheets (CSS), AJAX(Asynchronous Javascript And XML), helper applications, plug-ins, andthe like. A server may include a web service that receives a requestfrom a web server, the request including a URL(http://yahoo.com/stockquotes/ge) and an IP address (123.56.789.234).The web server retrieves the appropriate web pages and sends the data orapplications for the web pages to the IP address. Web services areapplications that are capable of interacting with other applicationsover a communications means, such as the internet. Web services aretypically based on standards or protocols such as XML, SOAP, AJAX, WSDLand UDDI. Web services methods are well known in the art, and arecovered in many standard texts. See, e.g., Alex Nghiem, IT Web Services:A Roadmap for the Enterprise (2003), hereby incorporated by reference.

Middleware may include any hardware and/or software suitably configuredto facilitate communications and/or process transactions betweendisparate computing systems. Middleware components are commerciallyavailable and known in the art. Middleware may be implemented throughcommercially available hardware and/or software, through custom hardwareand/or software components, or through a combination thereof. Middlewaremay reside in a variety of configurations and may exist as a standalonesystem or may be a software component residing on the Internet server.Middleware may be configured to process transactions between the variouscomponents of an application server and any number of internal orexternal systems for any of the purposes disclosed herein. WebSphere MQ™(formerly MQSeries) by IBM, Inc. (Armonk, N.Y.) is an example of acommercially available middleware product. An Enterprise Service Bus(“ESB”) application is another example of middleware.

Practitioners will also appreciate that there are a number of methodsfor displaying data within a browser-based document. Data may berepresented as standard text or within a fixed list, scrollable list,drop-down list, editable text field, fixed text field, pop-up window,and the like. Likewise, there are a number of methods available formodifying data in a web page such as, for example, free text entry usinga keyboard, selection of menu items, check boxes, option boxes, and thelike.

The system and method may be described herein in terms of functionalblock components, screen shots, optional selections and variousprocessing steps. It should be appreciated that such functional blocksmay be realized by any number of hardware and/or software componentsconfigured to perform the specified functions. For example, the systemmay employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements,processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, and the like, whichmay carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or moremicroprocessors or other control devices. Similarly, the softwareelements of the system may be implemented with any programming orscripting language such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, VBScript,Macromedia Cold Fusion, COBOL, Microsoft Active Server Pages, assembly,PERL, PHP, awk, Python, Visual Basic, SQL Stored Procedures, PL/SQL, anyUNIX shell script, and extensible markup language (XML) with the variousalgorithms being implemented with any combination of data structures,objects, processes, routines or other programming elements. Further, itshould be noted that the system may employ any number of conventionaltechniques for data transmission, signaling, data processing, networkcontrol, and the like. Still further, the system could be used to detector prevent security issues with a client-side scripting language, suchas JavaScript, VBScript or the like. For a basic introduction ofcryptography and network security, see any of the following references:(1) “Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, And Source Code In C,”by Bruce Schneier, published by John Wiley & Sons (second edition,1995); (2) “Java Cryptography” by Jonathan Knudson, published byO'Reilly & Associates (1998); (3) “Cryptography & Network Security:Principles & Practice” by William Stallings, published by Prentice Hall;all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

Each participant is equipped in various embodiments with a computingdevice in order to interact with the system and facilitate onlinecommerce transactions. The customer has a computing unit in the form ofa personal computer, although other types of computing units may be usedincluding laptops, notebooks, hand held computers, set-top boxes,cellular or mobile telephones, touch-tone telephones and the like. Themerchant has a computing unit implemented in the form of acomputer-server, although other implementations are contemplated by thesystem. The bank has a computing center shown as a main frame computer.However, the bank computing center may be implemented in other forms,such as a mini-computer, a PC server, a network of computers located inthe same of different geographic locations, or the like. Moreover, thesystem contemplates the use, sale or distribution of any goods, servicesor information over any network having similar functionality describedherein.

The merchant computer and the bank computer may be interconnected via asecond network, referred to as a payment network. The payment networkwhich may be part of certain transactions represents existingproprietary networks that presently accommodate transactions for creditcards, debit cards, and other types of financial/banking cards. Thepayment network is a closed network that is assumed to be secure fromeavesdroppers. Exemplary transaction networks may include the AmericanExpress®, VisaNet® and the Veriphone® networks.

The electronic commerce system may be implemented at the customer andissuing bank. In an exemplary implementation, the electronic commercesystem is implemented as computer software modules loaded onto thecustomer computer and the banking computing center. The merchantcomputer does not require any additional software to participate in theonline commerce transactions supported by the online commerce system.

As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the systemmay be embodied as a customization of an existing system, an add-onproduct, a processing apparatus executing upgraded software, a standalone system, a distributed system, a method, a data processing system,a device for data processing, and/or a computer program product.Accordingly, any portion of the system or a module may take the form ofa processing apparatus executing code, an internet based embodiment, anentirely hardware embodiment, or an embodiment combining aspects of theinternet, software and hardware. Furthermore, the system may take theform of a computer program product on a computer-readable storage mediumhaving computer-readable program code means embodied in the storagemedium. Any suitable computer-readable storage medium may be utilized,including hard disks, CD-ROM, optical storage devices, magnetic storagedevices, and/or the like.

The system and method is described herein with reference to screenshots, block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods, apparatus(e.g., systems), and computer program products according to variousembodiments. It will be understood that each functional block of theblock diagrams and the flowchart illustrations, and combinations offunctional blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations,respectively, can be implemented by computer program instructions.

These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a general purposecomputer, special purpose computer, or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructionsthat execute on the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks. These computer program instructions may alsobe stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function specified in the flowchart block or blocks.The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks.

Accordingly, functional blocks of the block diagrams and flowchartillustrations support combinations of means for performing the specifiedfunctions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions,and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. Itwill also be understood that each functional block of the block diagramsand flowchart illustrations, and combinations of functional blocks inthe block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, can be implemented byeither special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform thespecified functions or steps, or suitable combinations of specialpurpose hardware and computer instructions. Further, illustrations ofthe process flows and the descriptions thereof may make reference touser windows, webpages, websites, web forms, prompts, etc. Practitionerswill appreciate that the illustrated steps described herein may comprisein any number of configurations including the use of windows, webpages,web forms, popup windows, prompts and the like. It should be furtherappreciated that the multiple steps as illustrated and described may becombined into single webpages and/or windows but have been expanded forthe sake of simplicity. In other cases, steps illustrated and describedas single process steps may be separated into multiple webpages and/orwindows but have been combined for simplicity.

The detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention herein makes reference to the accompanying drawings andfigures, which show the exemplary embodiments by way of illustrationonly. While these exemplary embodiments are described in sufficientdetail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the presentinvention, it should be understood that other embodiments may berealized and that logical and mechanical changes may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It will beapparent to a person skilled in the pertinent art that this inventioncan also be employed in a variety of other applications. Thus, thedetailed description herein is presented for purposes of illustrationonly and not of limitation. For example, the steps recited in any of themethod or process descriptions may be executed in any order and are notlimited to the order presented.

The present invention is described herein with reference to systemarchitecture, block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods, andcomputer program products according to various aspects of the presentinvention. It will be understood that each functional block of the blockdiagrams and the flowchart illustrations, and combinations of functionalblocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, respectively,can be implemented by computer program instructions.

These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a general purposecomputer, special purpose computer, or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructionsthat execute on the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks. These computer program instructions may alsobe stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function specified in the flowchart block or blocks.The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks.

Accordingly, functional blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagramillustrations support combinations of means for performing the specifiedfunctions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions,and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. Itwill also be understood that each functional block of the block diagramsand flowchart illustrations, and combinations of functional blocks inthe block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, can be implemented byeither special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform thespecified functions or steps, or suitable combinations of specialpurpose hardware and computer instructions.

The term “non-transitory” is to be understood to remove only propagatingtransitory signals per se from the claim scope and does not relinquishrights to all standard computer-readable media that are not onlypropagating transitory signals per se. Stated another way, the meaningof the term “non-transitory computer-readable medium” and“non-transitory computer-readable storage medium” should be construed toexclude only those types of transitory computer-readable media whichwere found in In Re Nuijten to fall outside the scope of patentablesubject matter under 35 U.S.C. §101.

Phrases and terms similar to “account”, “account number”, “account code”or “consumer account” as used herein, may include any device, code(e.g., one or more of an authorization/access code, personalidentification number (“PIN”), Internet code, other identification code,and/or the like), number, letter, symbol, digital certificate, smartchip, digital signal, analog signal, biometric or otheridentifier/indicia suitably configured to allow the consumer to access,interact with or communicate with the system. The account number mayoptionally be located on or associated with a rewards account, chargeaccount, credit account, debit account, prepaid account, telephone card,embossed card, smart card, magnetic stripe card, bar code card,transponder, radio frequency card or an associated account.

The system may include or interface with any of the foregoing accounts,devices, and/or a transponder and reader (e.g. RFID reader) in RFcommunication with the transponder (which may include a fob), orcommunications between an initiator and a target enabled by near fieldcommunications (NFC). Typical devices may include, for example, a keyring, tag, card, cell or mobile phone, wristwatch or any such formcapable of being presented for interrogation. Moreover, the system,computing unit or device discussed herein may include a “pervasivecomputing device,” which may include a traditionally non-computerizeddevice that is embedded with a computing unit. Examples may includewatches, Internet enabled kitchen appliances, restaurant tables embeddedwith RF readers, wallets or purses with imbedded transponders, etc.Furthermore, a device or financial transaction instrument may haveelectronic and communications functionality enabled, for example, by: anetwork of electronic circuitry that is printed or otherwiseincorporated onto or within the transaction instrument (and typicallyreferred to as a “smart card”); a fob having a transponder and an RFIDreader; and/or near field communication (NFC) technologies. For moreinformation regarding NFC, refer to the following specifications all ofwhich are incorporated by reference herein: ISO/IEC 18092/ECMA-340, ISO14443, Near Field Communication Interface and Protocol-1 (NFCIP-1);ISO/IEC 21481/ECMA-352, Near Field Communication Interface andProtocol-2 (NFCIP-2); and EMV 4.2 available athttp://www.emvco.com/default.aspx.

The account number may be distributed and stored in any form of plastic,electronic, magnetic, radio frequency, wireless, audio and/or opticaldevice capable of transmitting or downloading data from itself to asecond device. A consumer account number may be, for example, asixteen-digit account number, although each credit provider has its ownnumbering system, such as the fifteen-digit numbering system used byAmerican Express. Each company's account numbers comply with thatcompany's standardized format such that the company using afifteen-digit format will generally use three-spaced sets of numbers, asrepresented by the number “0000 000000 00000”. The first five to sevendigits are reserved for processing purposes and identify the issuingbank, account type, etc. In this example, the last (fifteenth) digit isused as a sum check for the fifteen digit number. The intermediaryeight-to-eleven digits are used to uniquely identify the consumer. Amerchant account number may be, for example, any number or alpha-numericcharacters that identify a particular merchant for purposes of accountacceptance, account reconciliation, reporting, or the like.

In various embodiments, an account number may identify a consumer. Inaddition, in various embodiments, a consumer may be identified by avariety of identifiers, including, for example, an email address, atelephone number, a cookie id, a radio frequency identifier (RFID), abiometric, and the like.

The terms “payment vehicle,” “financial transaction instrument,”“transaction instrument” and/or the plural form of these terms may beused interchangeably throughout to refer to a financial instrument.

Phrases and terms similar to “internal data” may include any data acredit issuer possesses or acquires pertaining to a particular consumer.Internal data may be gathered before, during, or after a relationshipbetween the credit issuer and the transaction account holder (e.g., theconsumer or buyer). Such data may include consumer demographic data.Consumer demographic data includes any data pertaining to a consumer.Consumer demographic data may include, for example, consumer name,address, telephone number, email address, employer and social securitynumber. Consumer transactional data is any data pertaining to theparticular transactions in which a consumer engages during any giventime period. Consumer transactional data may include, for example,transaction amount, transaction time, transaction vendor/merchant, andtransaction vendor/merchant location. Transaction vendor/merchantlocation may contain a high degree of specificity to a vendor/merchant.For example, transaction vendor/merchant location may include aparticular gasoline filing station in a particular postal code locatedat a particular cross section or address. Also, for example, transactionvendor/merchant location may include a particular web address, such as aUniform Resource Locator (“URL”), an email address and/or an InternetProtocol (“IP”) address for a vendor/merchant. Transactionvendor/merchant and transaction vendor/merchant location may beassociated with a particular consumer and further associated with setsof consumers. Consumer payment data includes any data pertaining to aconsumer's history of paying debt obligations. Consumer payment data mayinclude consumer payment dates, payment amounts, balance amount, andcredit limit. Internal data may further comprise records of consumerservice calls, complaints, requests for credit line increases,questions, and comments. A record of a consumer service call includes,for example, date of call, reason for call, and any transcript orsummary of the actual call.

Phrases similar to a “payment processor” may include a company (e.g., athird party) appointed (e.g., by a merchant) to handle transactions. Apayment processor may include an issuer, acquirer, authorizer and/or anyother system or entity involved in the transaction process. Paymentprocessors may be broken down into two types: front-end and back-end.Front-end payment processors have connections to various transactionaccounts and supply authorization and settlement services to themerchant banks' merchants. Back-end payment processors acceptsettlements from front-end payment processors and, via The FederalReserve Bank, move money from an issuing bank to the merchant bank. Inan operation that will usually take a few seconds, the payment processorwill both check the details received by forwarding the details to therespective account's issuing bank or card association for verification,and may carry out a series of anti-fraud measures against thetransaction. Additional parameters, including the account's country ofissue and its previous payment history, may be used to gauge theprobability of the transaction being approved. In response to thepayment processor receiving confirmation that the transaction accountdetails have been verified, the information may be relayed back to themerchant, who will then complete the payment transaction. In response tothe verification being denied, the payment processor relays theinformation to the merchant, who may then decline the transaction.Phrases similar to a “payment gateway” or “gateway” may include anapplication service provider service that authorizes payments fore-businesses, online retailers, and/or traditional brick and mortarmerchants. The gateway may be the equivalent of a physical point of saleterminal located in most retail outlets. A payment gateway may protecttransaction account details by encrypting sensitive information, such astransaction account numbers, to ensure that information passes securelybetween the customer and the merchant and also between merchant andpayment processor.

Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have beendescribed herein with regard to specific embodiments. However, thebenefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any elements that maycause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become morepronounced are not to be construed as critical, required, or essentialfeatures or elements of the disclosure. The scope of the disclosure isaccordingly to be limited by nothing other than the appended claims, inwhich reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean“one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one ormore.” Moreover, where a phrase similar to ‘at least one of A, B, and C’or ‘at least one of A, B, or C’ is used in the claims or specification,it is intended that the phrase be interpreted to mean that A alone maybe present in an embodiment, B alone may be present in an embodiment, Calone may be present in an embodiment, or that any combination of theelements A, B and C may be present in a single embodiment; for example,A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C. Although the disclosureincludes a method, it is contemplated that it may be embodied ascomputer program instructions on a tangible computer-readable carrier,such as a magnetic or optical memory or a magnetic or optical disk. Allstructural, chemical, and functional equivalents to the elements of theabove-described exemplary embodiments that are known to those ofordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by referenceand are intended to be encompassed by the present claims. Moreover, itis not necessary for a device or method to address each and everyproblem sought to be solved by the present disclosure, for it to beencompassed by the present claims. Furthermore, no element, component,or method step in the present disclosure is intended to be dedicated tothe public regardless of whether the element, component, or method stepis explicitly recited in the claims. No claim element herein is to beconstrued under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, unlessthe element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for.” As usedherein, the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, or any other variationthereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that aprocess, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elementsdoes not include only those elements but may include other elements notexpressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, orapparatus.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: capturing, by a mobiledevice, an image of a receipt; wherein the image of the receipt iscompared with a record of charge (ROC) associated with a transactionaccount, wherein the ROC includes a standard industrial classification(SIC) code of a merchant and a location associated with the ROC; andreceiving, by the mobile device, a notification that an entry on theimage of the receipt is associated with the ROC based upon at least oneof the SIC code or the location.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein theROC is assigned to a category of expense.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the ROC is assigned to a category of expense based upon at leastone of: the SIC code of the merchant, a category assigned to a differentROC, or the location associated with the ROC.
 4. The method of claim 1,further comprising capturing, by the mobile device, a plurality ofimages of a plurality of receipts, wherein the plurality of receipts areseparated into individual receipts, wherein a plurality of records ofcharge (ROC) associated with the transaction account are retrieved; andwherein one of the plurality of images is matched to one of theplurality of ROCs to obtain a matched image, based upon informationacquired from each of the plurality of images.
 5. The method of claim 1,further comprising submitting, by the mobile device, the image of thereceipt and the ROC to an expense management system.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the mobile device, at leastone of a client name or project code to associate with the ROC.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising capturing, by an app on the mobiledevice, the image of the receipt.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein theROC is retrieved from a transaction processor system.
 9. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the ROC is retrieved in response to receiving the imageof the receipt.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the ROC is providedby the merchant via a merchant system to a transaction processor system.11. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request, bythe mobile device, for the image of the receipt associated with the ROC.12. The method of claim 1, wherein an instruction is received to delaythe comparing of the image of the receipt to the ROC.
 13. The method ofclaim 12, wherein the instruction to delay the comparing comprisesinaction by a customer in response to an alert for requesting the imageof the receipt.
 14. A mobile device comprising: a processor, a tangible,non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor, thetangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that,in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor toperform operations comprising: capturing, by the processor, an image ofa receipt; wherein the image of the receipt is compared with a record ofcharge (ROC) associated with a transaction account, wherein the ROCincludes a standard industrial classification (SIC) code of a merchantand a location associated with the ROC; and receiving, by the processor,a notification that an entry on the image of the receipt is associatedwith the ROC based upon at least one of the SIC code or the location.15. The system of claim 14, wherein the ROC is retrieved in response toreceiving the image of the receipt.
 16. The system of claim 14, whereinthe ROC is provided by the merchant via a merchant system to atransaction processor system.
 17. The system of claim 14, furthercomprising receiving a request, by the mobile device, for the image ofthe receipt associated with the ROC.
 18. The system of claim 14, whereinan instruction is received to delay the comparing of the image of thereceipt to the ROC.
 19. The system of claim 18, wherein the instructionto delay the comparing comprises inaction by a customer in response toan alert for requesting the image of the receipt.
 20. An article ofmanufacture including a non-transitory, tangible computer readablestorage medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response toexecution by a mobile device, cause the mobile device to performoperations comprising: capturing, by the mobile device, an image of areceipt; wherein the image of the receipt is compared with a record ofcharge (ROC) associated with a transaction account, wherein the ROCincludes a standard industrial classification (SIC) code of a merchantand a location associated with the ROC; and receiving, by the mobiledevice, a notification that an entry on the image of the receipt isassociated with the ROC based upon at least one of the SIC code or thelocation.